Handcar Regatta

Choklit Chanteuse portrait by Michael Garlington

Dearest Well Attired Regattans (and those darling devotees of style who wish to be so),

Allow me to introduce our very own Choklit Chanteuse of Adornments for Tarts repute, and divine songstress of Baby Seal Club, whose authority on exquisite dress is beyond compare.

The muse speaketh…

As our most-favoured local faire The Great Handcar Regatta approaches, your Choklit has been besieged by faire-goers wishing for advice on proper Regatta attire. So I’ve compiled a brief guide to how to outfit oneself for this most auspicious occasion.

Steampunk has a thousand definitions and a spectrum of devotees from purists to novices ~ but in my humble opinion, the very joy of the steampunk genre is the fantasy and flexibility of it. So I present this guide only as a playful suggestion, ideas for the curious, and not as any sort of definitive tome. Onwards!

Inspiration and Character
When starting from the ground on a costume, I would advise choosing a character ~ not that one need play that role all the day, but it can help keep one focused. Are you a mad tinkerer? A street urchin? A vaudevillian vamp? A dandy aristocrat? An intrepid explorer? A soiled dove? Last year’s Regatta played host to a fine cast of characters.

The basics for any steamy costume are historically inspired, from the Victorian or Edwardian period. Look up costuming resources online for images ~ the Costumer’s Manifesto, Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild, and Truly Victorian are good starting points. The good news is that the basics are rather simple – long full skirts and blouses for the ladies, dress shirts, vests and high-waisted pants for men. Natural fibres like cotton, wool, linen, and leather are ideal, and many steampunks tend towards earthy, natural colors – browns, khakis, creams – but bright colors can also be used to great effect.

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•—~—• Roshambo Winery Presents •—~—•

Triumphant Competitive Success!
7th Annual
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS TOURNAMENT

~ combat for one day only ~
June 6th, 2009, Noon to 5pm

 located at 
Cornerstone: 23579 Hwy 121, Sonoma, CA 95476
(just 30 minutes in approx. from S.F., depending upon the poundage of one’s trotter)

EVENT.
 Competition to ensue for generous winnings in question:
$1700 Purse +funny money prizes

Ticket Sum
$20 to compete, $10 spectators
Purchasing agent located thusly

Ebullience and Pep!
Sporting Costumed Flare & Imbibition Jocundity Encouraged

THIS JUST IN!
The Krank-Boom-Clank bike mangling boys hit New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat on Sat., July 19th. Photos seen at Flickr.

Word has it that the festival was a rollicking good time, replete with a rowdy Chicago-based marching known as Mucca Pazza, the vivacious and verily pink Sprockettes, plus more bands, the helmeted madness of Cyclecide’s rodeo of truly bizarre wheels, and so much ambrosial beer (and yet more delights such as the New Orleans style marching wake for the dying love of cars via a child’s Cadillac Escalade carried upon shoulders on a litter and the scads of costumed bike fanatics in attendance too)!

See everyone’s Flickr shots from the day.

THIS JUST IN!
Photographs from the sunny day on July 4th among the costumed folks and the tent of treasures and oddities are available at Flickr.

Some may note that decades have passed lamentably beyond the venerable codes of dress and decorum so commonly observed in my worthy day. …Ah, yes. Just thinking of that one bewitching eve in gracious company of the ravishing Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia hardly precludes an episode of tearful remembrance. …Un moment, s’il vous plaît, my hanky…

Ahem! Why, today, “SCANDALOUS” is scarcely a word to describe the loathsome sight of manifold human portions drooping between moth-eaten layers of threadbare physique-conditioning vestments or, excuse the crassness, “sweats”, as they say nowadays.

Regardless, I am most pleased to announce that the distinguished GBACG (Greater Bay Area Costume Guild) has obligingly affixed our humble Handcar Regatta event to their highly respected “Community Calendar for Costume Enthusiasts”. Welcome well-attired members of GBACG!

So, I say to the Santa Rosa and surrounding environs with fine folks who wish to adorn The Great Handcar Regatta: “Bedizened Citizens in Costume Festoonery ENCOURAGED Most Perfervidly!”

Your most humble of servants ever,
Dr. Erasmus P. Kitty

When Erasmus is not laboring tirelessly to advance dental scientific knowledge or refining human transportation for the masses, Dr. E.P. Kitty is enjoying a leisurely picnic amongst the bustles and baseballs circa this June 1st, Sunday, 1870.

The Bay Area Vintage Baseball League will be playing on the Big Rec Ballfield in Golden Gate Park. The San Jose Dukes go up against home team San Francisco Pacifics. Our teams will be in vintage baseball uniforms, playing by the original rules. You’ll easily spot the umpire, because he’s the guy on the field in top hat and tailcoat! Bring a picnic lunch and root for the team of your choice while sporting your Victorian attire.

UPDATE!

Electro-luminescent renderings from the famed mistress of light, Marcy Mendelson, have been discovered of said “Bustles and Baseball” game in the magnificent Golden Gate Park in sun-drenched San Francisco, CA, Sunday June 1st, circa 2008:

ITEM!
Learn more about vintage baseball through the following edifying list of proper slang:

• Ace or Tally – run; crossing home base
• Apple, pill, horsehide, onion – the ball
• Artist – proficient player
• Baller, Ballist – player
• Basetender – an infielder
• Bench – manager or coach
• Blind – no score
• Blooper, banjo hit – weak fly ball, “Texas leaguer”
• Boodler – ungentlemanly maneuver

More…